Thursday, February 13, 2014

Teotihuacan - 1988 vs. 2014

These two photos are from our visit to Teotihuacan during the summer of 1988:

Before the pyramid was quite weedy but now they send a work crew to keep the pyramid weedless.

We don't have a photo from the same spot as the first family photo but this is our best comparison photo from 13 February 2014--not much has changed.

Here are some more photos from our recent trip.

The Citadel

The "large quadrangle which the first Spaniards to visit the site named 'Ciudadela' as it reminded them of a fortress because of the central building or 'castle' from which ran a wall surround a court with one stepped entrance. Explorations made in the 20th century have revealed that the building was the Temple of Quetzalcoatl and that the 'wall' is made up of platforms 7 meters high with pyramidal structures on the top." [From Teotihuacan - History, Art and Monuments]

Temple at Quetzalcoatl

The Temple of the Feathered Serpent is the modern-day name for the third largest pyramid at Teotihuacan, pre-Columbian site in central Mexico. This structure is notable partly due to the discovery in the 1980s of more than a hundred possibly-sacrificial victims found buried beneath the structure.[1] The burials, like the structure, are dated to some time between 150 and 200 CE.[2] The pyramid takes its name from representations of the Mesoamerican "feathered serpent" deity which covered its sides. These are some of the earliest-known representations of the feathered serpent, often identified with the much-later Aztec god Quetzalcoatl.[3] The structure is also known as the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, and the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. [Wikipedia]